Shoutout to the guy who told me to freeze my stock in muffin tins

I was wasting so much time defrosting a whole quart of chicken stock just to use a cup for a sauce. Last month, a cook from a Portland spot told me to pour cooled stock into a standard muffin tin, freeze it solid, then pop the pucks into a bag. Each puck is about half a cup. Now I just grab two pucks for my pan sauces, no waste. Has anyone else found a better way to portion and store demi or other reductions?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_viola20d ago

My mom taught me to use ice cube trays for the same thing. I mean, the muffin tin pucks are great for bigger amounts, but for demi or a really strong reduction, I freeze it in cubes first. One cube is like a tablespoon, so you can drop a single cube into a pan sauce without overdoing it. I just pop them out into a freezer bag once they're solid. It stops me from wasting that super concentrated stuff.

lindahunt20d ago

Ever try that with tomato paste? The stuff in a can always goes bad before I use it all. Now I freeze little blobs of it on a sheet pan first. Once they're hard, I toss them in a bag. One blob melts right into a soup or stew and you don't have to open a new can.